Author Sue Ann Jaffarian offers meanderings from an often muddled and exhausted mind.

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Diary of a Deadline - Get 'er Done Time

Counting today, I have 4 days until the deadline on my manuscript for A BODY TO SPARE, my 10th Odelia Grey novel.

The book is done and I'm doing my final edits. I should be excited and nearly celebratory, shouldn't it?

But nooooooooooooooooo.

You see, I've hit a bit of a glitch.

Last night the voices in my head told me I need to do some major revisions in a few of the chapters. Those voices are correct. I do need to do some rewrites here and there. In fact, that's what I'll be doing today. Fortunately, it's later in the book and the first 2/3 of the manuscript are tight and edited.

The book would be fine without those re-writes. Really, it would. Everything is moving along nicely and the parts all fit together.

I'm at a junction. I can settle for the book as it is for the sake of time. The manuscript is okay and even good. BUT, am I shooting for just okay or for the best I can do?

Tip of the Day

Let your writing be ruled by your inner voice,

not the calendar.

Your book will be the better for it.

This does not mean to blow off your deadline to rewrite. My book is due to my publisher this week and I promised it would be done. And it will be! What will be sacrificed will be the plans I had for today. Gone! Kaput! Instead, I'll be reworking those couple of chapters with glitches, then moving forward to finish the edits.

That's what a professional writer would do.

And there will be no whining about it.

So here I am. It's 8:30 on a beautiful Sunday morning. The cats have been fed and I'm armed with hot coffee. I'm prepared to show no mercy to those "nice" chapters for the next several hours. If I stay focused, I might get it all done today, maybe even in time for dinner and watching a little Sunday night TV.

1 comment:

I very much like and admire your dedication to quality, to do 'what is right'. Others like me benefit but, you don't do it for us. You do it to be true to yourself.One can see this in a person in nearly any vocation or activity be it writing, sports, engineering, or friendship.Keep it up. For yourself and, selfishly, for me, a dedicated reader.

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